I swallowed the lump in my throat and blinked back my tears. “Hannah?”
She graced me with a loving smile. “My name is Haniel, my other, and I slumber no longer.”
Holy. Frijoles. My demon wasn’t a demon at all. She was an angel. And not just any angel—an Archangel.
I took a step back, struggling to remain upright. “What—how—why have you been living in me instead of ruling in the celestial realm?”
D spoke, his voice low and menacing. “Because she’s a fallen. She was banished eons ago, cast out for betraying her kind and joining forces with Belial.”
I spun around and stared at him, flabbergasted. “You know her?”
“Yes,” he said. “Don’t trust her or anything she says. She’s a liar and a traitor who’ll use you to get what she wants and then toss you aside and crush you under her boot.”
Hannah—Haniel—smiled benevolently at us. “Demoriel, you’ve grown into quite the warrior. I owe you a debt of gratitude for protecting our Jane. Your father will be pleased.” She floated closer, and D shoved me behind him.
Shoved me, as in pushed me behind him in a display of alpha macho crap like I couldn’t defend myself. Seriously? After I put a knife in Barbatos’s heart, not to mention all the demons I’d tagged and bagged over the years, he pulled the alpha thing? What the hell?
Wait a minute…
“You know her.” I ducked under D’s arm. No, wait, I ducked under Demoriel’s arm. I was learning so many names today. I wondered if I had another name. “You knew her, and you didn’t tell me. And she knows your dad.”
Shock and confusion morphed into rage. I’d had enough of secrets and lies. I hit him in the chest and pointed my knife at him. He raised his palms and made to step closer, but I jabbed the blade with enough force to let him know I meant business. He took a step back. “Start talking.”
“Jane, there’s no time.” He gestured to the portals. They’d started spinning and humming with energy. Crap. Every time I was on the verge of getting answers, some apocalyptic nonsense got in the way. The universe was totally info-blocking me.
Melodious laughter brought my attention back to my erstwhile demon-turned-fallen angel. “What’s so funny? It’s not like you clued me in, either.”
“I was imprisoned. Stripped of my identity and my memories and placed in your keeping.”
I pointed my knife at her. I wasn’t sure if demon steel was a match for an Archangel, but I was pissed. And those minor impulse-control issues hadn’t magically disappeared. “I haven’t been around for eons. Where were you before? And who put you there?”
She glanced down at my knife and flashed me a feral smile. She was still beautiful, but her features had morphed into something predatory, like a wolf or panther sizing up a tasty morsel of prey. This was totally not helping my trust issues.
“I do not yet know everything. Only that I’ve been passed from host to host over many generations, humans with celestial lineages, products of unions between angels and earth dwellers. Your power and spirit allowed me to awaken and set me free when Mephisto came. I thank you.”
“Don’t listen to her, Jane. She’s here to destroy earth and the celestial realm.”
I didn’t trust D at this point any more than I trusted the celestial who’d been inhabiting me, but he had a point. Hannah or Haniel or whoever she was fit the bill when it came to the grimoire’s prediction.
One who has long slumbered shall awaken, a Fallen of the Host of Seven, she who has the power to open the gates to the Realm of Darkness.
My teammates all started chattering at once. Sam yelled something about Belial’s consort, D pleaded with me to step away from Haniel, Trinity was chanting in a demon language—hopefully conjuring a silence spell—and Lacey yelled at me to do something already. I was inclined to listen to Lacey, but I had no idea what I was supposed to do.
Well, there was one pressing matter. “Okay, Haniel, how about you shut down these portals and then we can talk? You know, angel to angel, so we can get to know each other better?”
She smiled at me, the kind of smile a parent gives to a precocious toddler. It pissed me off. “No. That I will not do. I have a long-overdue reunion and a reckoning with my kindred. They imprisoned me. I shall have justice.”
“Okay, you want a little payback. I get it. The earth realm isn’t the place, though. Take your quest for revenge to the celestial realm and leave us out of it.”
She casually flicked her wrist, and my knife flew out of my hand. D and Sam materialized in front of me, weapons at the ready. Okay, this time I’d take it. Alpha male posturing or guarding, I was clearly out of my league in this fight. Lacey and Trinity flanked me. They hadn’t lost their weapons yet. We needed to come up with something brilliant before this powerful and possibly insane—PTSD from prolonged imprisonment, anyone?—Archangel annihilated us.
Sam and D stepped forward, blades at the ready.
Sam made the first move, conjuring a cage of fire around Haniel. “Do close the portals, my dear, before you unleash something you cannot handle. Rumor has it that’s what got you into trouble in the first place.”
I watched in horror and fascination as the cage began to shrink. Sure, she was powerful and dangerous, but she was still Hannah, my Hannah, and I didn’t want to watch her suffer and die. I rushed forward, but strong arms held me back.
“Let me go.” I struggled against D’s death grip, trying to break free without hurting him. Good grief! Fighting was much easier when it involved capturing and destroying bad demons. “We can’t let him kill her.”
D pulled me against his body and hissed in my ear. “We have to let her know we mean business.”
He had a point, but every instinct I had screamed this was wrong, that I needed to save her. “Why can’t Sam just close the portal to the hell realm? He’s a demon lord, or marquess, or whatever.”
“He didn’t create the portal, and he’s not a summoner. She has to do it.”
“What about the boss? He’s the master of all things demon in this realm. Where is he?” I scanned the room, looking for anything that might be out of place. Haniel said she’d been imprisoned for a long time, so it was possible to send her back. And I already knew demons could be imprisoned. The cold metal of the locket that held my black mirror served as a reminder, though it had actually held a celestial disguised as a demon.
A celestial disguised as a demon…or maybe two? If Hannah was an angel in disguise, who or what was my boss? Lacey’s demon had observed two celestials arguing before we entered the room, and given that the portals were not open—yet—then the boss had either fled the scene or had been incapacitated and tucked away by the pissed-off celestial who’d once inhabited my consciousness. Fleeing wasn’t the boss’s style.
That meant the boss was most likely incapacitated and close by. Wow. Sherlock Holmes had nothing on me, baby.
“Jane, get your head in the game.” D shook me harder than necessary, but I’d let it slide this time.
“Okay, here’s the plan. You and Sam keep Hannah, I mean Haniel, distracted. I doubt that fire cage will hold her for long, but do what you can.”
“What are you planning?” D looked skeptical. Seriously, where was the trust?
“I’m going to find the boss and set him free.”
“The boss? Free?”
Crap. Life would be easier if my coworkers could just read my mind. True, it would be more awkward, but easier. “Arbiter, Intercessor, and the Warriors imbued with power of the three realms shall tip the balance for good or ill. The grimoire says he’s a part of this, so he must be here. I have to find him.”
Score one for Jinx’s memory. I hoped Trinity noticed.
Before he could question me further, I broke out of his hold, rolled, and scrambled over the floor to retrieve my blade. I held it out, swiping it over every nook, cranny, and knickknack in the office. Trinity, bless her, caught on and started sweeping the other side of the room while Lacey took up a
position next to D. I glanced at the fiery cage and spotted some gaps in the flames. Haniel worked fast. And since she probably outranked and outpowered Sam, we didn’t have much time.
Okay. Think. If I were an angry Archangel, where would I stash a demon lord?
I didn’t know the Archangel, but I knew Hannah. I’d lived all my life with her, and she’d picked up some of my personality traits and habits. If the boss had gotten in my way, I would have stuffed him in something he hated out of spite. What did he hate in this office?
Trash can? Nope, my knife didn’t glow when I ran it by the shiny, freakishly clean metal waste receptacle. Desk drawers? Nada. He adored his books, so I’d ruled out the bookcases with a cursory swipe. I glanced at the row of flat-screens lining the walls. All blank, but a tiny orange light glowed in the corner of one screen, like it was in low power mode.
It was the only one.
I ran over and held my knife up, stretching as far as I could to compensate for my lack of height. Bingo. It was faint, but my knife emitted a red glow. I took a few steps back and gauged my target.
With a deep breath and a prayer, I tossed my blade at the screen.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
The screen shattered into a thousand pieces with a sound that set my ears ringing like the bells of Notre Dame. The boss materialized, looked around his office, and then his gaze settled on my blade, which now glowed with a brilliant blue. He picked it up. It shifted to red.
What the hell?
“Are you a demon or an angel or something else? I’m confused.”
The boss’s gaze landed on me, and I immediately regretted opening my big fat mouth. But come on, it was a legitimate question. And after setting the bastard free, I figured he owed me at least one straight answer.
Apparently guessing my train of thought, he said, “Not one or the other. I’m both, depending upon the circumstance. I am Sameal, the Archangel of Death, also known as the Arbiter, judge of all who dwell within the celestial, hell, and earth realms.”
“Okay…now that that’s settled, how about we get these portals closed and stop my demon/Archangel from unleashing Armageddon? Oh, and by the way, did you know this whole time?”
He flashed a wicked grin in my direction. “I’ve been keeping an eye on you since I discovered who and what you were and, more importantly, what you carried within you.”
I really wanted to hit him or stab him, but I figured now wasn’t the time. Besides, the double-crossing, conniving, sneaky jackass still had my knife. “You know,” I said, examining my nails. “This would have been a lot easier if you’d just told me the truth. You’re seriously the worst boss ever.”
I risked a glance, and if I didn’t know better, I’d have sworn I caught the briefest flash of regret. He shrugged. “You aren’t the only one with rules to follow.”
The sound of clanging metal made me spin around in time to see Haniel wielding a very large and impressive sword against Sam’s staff. Knocking Sam off-balance, she spun around and crossed blades with D, thrusting and swinging until she’d forced him into a corner. Lacey charged, but a lightning-fast sweep of Haniel’s legs knocked her off her feet. Haniel turned her attention back to D. He was a great fighter and powerful warrior, but a young demon was surely no match for a fallen Archangel.
She raised her hand and lifted D up off the ground, Jedi-style. He managed to toss one knife. It lodged in her shoulder, and crimson bloomed around the glowing blue blade. Haniel used her angel mojo to twist D’s arm until he dropped the knife in his other hand. He gasped as he clawed at Haniel’s fingers, eyes bulging and face turning red as she choked the life out of him.
No!
“You’ll need this.”
I turned, and the boss—Sameal, the Archangel of Death, as if I needed another secret identity surprise to keep up with—tossed me my knife. I spun back around, ran, and took a flying leap, grateful for my short, compact body. It came in handy for feats of gymnastics. I landed on Haniel’s back and jabbed my knife in her shoulder. She screamed and bucked in pain, dropping D in the process.
Then, she turned her wrath on me.
She slung me off her back, though I kept a grip on the knife, which slid with a slick, sickening ease from her flesh. I hit a wall and then the floor. Everything went from stark clarity to muddled and fuzzy in the space of a heartbeat.
Sounds echoed around me. Shouts from people around me fighting, the low but rising hum of something big—not mechanical, but somehow sinister. What was it? I knew it was something bad and I had to stop it, but how? My thoughts jumbled through the bowl of Jell-O that had once been my brain. I should get up, but I couldn’t seem to make my limbs work. There was something important I needed to do. I needed to check on someone. Someone important needed me. My chest went warm and tight, and my heart ached, but I couldn’t remember…
I had something in my hand. Moving my head sent unbearable pain ricocheting through my body, so I raised my arm. A knife. It was bloody, and it glowed bright blue. Blood. There was something about blood I had to remember. Think. The humming had become more intense. That wasn’t good. But I could stop it somehow with blood.
The image of a bleeding man flashed through my scrambled brain. A creature had taken his blood, used it to go where he was forbidden. The man’s blood was connected to that place and could let him go through an open door.
I forced myself to a sitting position as excruciating pain shot through my aching head. I was bleeding, too. Had I cut myself with the knife? No, that didn’t make sense. Not by how I’d fallen. How did I know that?
I blinked several times, and my vision focused. The humming sound came from two spinning circles of light—what the hell? The one on the right called to me. I didn’t know why, just like I didn’t know why the idea of these spinning circles turned my stomach to ice and froze the blood in my veins. Everyone in the room seemed to be engaged in deadly combat, and I got the sense I should try not to attract attention as I crawled along the floor toward the spinning thing.
Portal.
The word floated into my mind and conjured visions of horrible creatures emerging from the depths of some strange and forbidden place. I inched closer and closer, dizzy and light-headed from pain, fatigue, and more than a little blood loss. Head wounds were the worst. Eventually I got close enough to the portal to touch it. Not a good idea, since it burned my fingers. Crap. Now what?
The knife. Use the knife.
Okay. I was reluctant to part with my weapon. Never mind that I was too weak to use it, the idea of plunging it into that spinning circle of mayhem filled me with dread. It would kill me. Then again, I wasn’t sure I’d live much longer anyway. I reached behind my head and felt gingerly along my skull. It was sunken in the back. Yuck. I pulled my hand away before revulsion could sink her claws into me. Skull fracture for sure. Swelling, blood loss, memory loss.
Yeah, probably wasn’t getting out of this situation. I was in the middle of a raging battle and bleeding out. Some of these fighters were my allies, surely. I could save them. I could shut down at least one portal. My allies would get the other one, and everything would be all right.
Well, I wouldn’t be all right, but that seemed minor in the grander scheme of things.
I rose to my knees and then, with monumental effort, got to my feet. I gulped in a breath of air. With the last of my strength, I jabbed my knife into the portal.
I fell back and marveled as the lights of the portal shattered like a million shards of glass. Pretty cool trick for light since it wasn’t a solid. At least, I didn’t think it was. My head ached worse thinking about the laws of physics, so I just collapsed onto the floor as my limbs grew heavy and my sight grew a bit dimmer.
A beautiful and terrifying woman who seemed to be fighting the other people in the room screamed. She had blood dripping down one arm, but she still managed to fend off the fighters around her. I knew her, I thought. Tears trickled down my temples. That was weird. I didn’t think I was sad about d
ying—resigned, yes, but oddly at peace with it. No, I was sad for the woman and for the beautiful, dark man swinging two knives with deadly intent. I didn’t want to leave him.
The other portal opened in a brilliant burst of light, and a fearsome man stepped through. He raised his arms, and all movement ceased. The guy wasn’t human. I knew that much. And I didn’t think he’d come for a friendly visit.
“Lord Belial.” A tall, powerful man dressed in black—how original—stepped forward to block his path. “Your presence on the earth realm is unauthorized. Go back to your realm now, and we’ll forgive your trespass this one time.”
Lord Belial.
My head split as memories came flooding back. Mephisto and Mara, a demon lord bent on rebellion who wanted me and my demon—
No, she wasn’t a demon. She was an Archangel trapped as a demon, and she was determined to unleash the hell realm on earth. I’d closed the portal to the celestial realm, not the hell realm. Shit.
My team. The fighters were allies and friends. Belial would kill them all and destroy the earth. I couldn’t rely on my broken body to join the fight, so I called to the force within me once more. Whatever power had allowed me to defeat Mephisto and Barbatos could help me with Belial, or at least give us an edge that would help my fellow demon hunters to send him back through the damned portal to hell and close it forever.
Power surged within me, no longer bubbly but with the force of a geyser exploding with enough energy to knock everyone in the room on their collective asses. It lifted my body, and I floated over to Belial, who eyed me with a mixture of fascination and apparent revulsion. That was offensive. Sure, I was no doubt a big, bloody mess, but he was a demon warlord, for crying out loud.
“Thought it would take more than a little blood to make you squeamish,” I said. Then again, I was still a bit squeamish myself at the state of my body and brain, which I was pretty sure would fall out of my skull at any moment.
He laughed. “You have spirit. No wonder my son is fond of you.” He turned and leveled his red gaze on D, my D.
Catching Hell Page 27